Has anybody experienced any added/unexpected benefits to the vegan/vegetarian diet?

For me, when I stopped eating meat and adopted a vegetarian diet I lost a skin problem that I struggled with for 16 years. It was amazing to me that after many different doctors and dermatologists could not offer a solution that my problem is gone.

So this has me wondering if any of y'all have had something similar as a bonus to your choice of diet.

with vega my energy levels are so high that when i go to the gym and work every muscle group to failure i sit in the jacuzzi with the same energy i had when i came in.. although my muscles are too spent to move as well.and i could see myself doing it 2 more times.. except for having failed muscles.

also, problems like indigestion, and complexion. eating lots of omega 3 helps with that, plus it makes your hair shinier.so basically i feel like i'm high on energy with no discomfort in my digestive tract. because i eat an omega 3 oil my brain works quicker too. i've noticed on a vegan diet (probably for this reason) that i can write more, and use/understand words. i.e. english becomes more complex and enjoyable to use. remember that all of the historic geniuses were vegan. einstein, plato, socrates, leonardo da vinci, tesla, ben franklin.

inventors/philosophers/mathematicians/artists.. veganism strengthens these abilities. meat eating i think has a tendency to cause learning disorders, lower consciousness (hindu), a loss of creativity, and even an ability to love (pythagoras).

meat eaters are the type of people that notice veganism is better, feel insecure, and try to talk others out of it.. because they'd rather forget that there's better than become it. and their attempts at doing it are stupid to a fault.. i.e. trying to say that bean juice (soy milk) is bad to put in your coffee, or that while you're making obvious muscle gains it's impossible to actually do so. consider that if this learning disorder is true that meat eaters are set back to childhood in terms of psychological development. i honestly learned about this firsthand when i was two, storytime: it creates a hostile impulse in the brain. this causes them to forget that they naturally discovered meat eating was bad in their biology and because of this discovery it's time to change. this leads to adapting into negative behavior where one would prefer to use a loss of memory over continuing to notice that they're doing the wrong thing. every meat eater for this reason has the tendency to shut off logical behavior when they hear the existence of veganism, try to force it out of their mind while their learning disorder cuts off that they thought about it. since no meat eater can actually remember anything, they energetically play 'hot potato' with knowledge that never sinks in. this creates a cult-like obsession with trying to make everybody a meat eater. i believe that ben franklin's note that the vegetable diet led to an 'occasional disconvenience' refers to this activity. when i go to the gym i'm treated like this. i went into a sauna with 2 people, stood in the corner noticing 'they' wanted to try and mess with my head while i sat down. the one in the middle left, and another one came in and stood right in front of me, instead of giving me any space at all. it was a huge sauna. there are ridiculous nuances to how it seems either schizophrenic on my part, or cult-like harassment. it literally is all based on how awful meat is for humans to consume. another point is that meat doesn't even refer to animal muscle. it is derived from the old english word mete meaning food. therefore 'meat' is another way of living in denial.

All of those things I expected. I guess I am an oddity. What about recovery time? Have any of you guys experienced a reduced recovery time? I noticed muscle soreness for a day and a half instead of three or four.

Back in July I was made redundant from an electronic engineering job I had been in for ten years. But six weeks later i found a new job - although similar to what I had been doing was technically more complex in many ways. From the first day I started my training on the new products and test equipment. This consisted of ten mins of quickly being shown and expected to diagnose these new electronic pcbs as well as run them through the diagnostic equipment on my own.

I picked it up very quickly and now i am very comfortable with it and have been offered a full time postion in my role (i started as a temp). Long and short of this is that I truly believe that my vegan diet has helped me with memory retention and speed learning skills. Before my diet i never thought to much about what i ate and certainly didn't bother with omega 3's but now i have added them to my diet (in the form of the algea DHA, and flax/hemp) i feel better in alot of ways.

I have more mental clarity and also feel alot more energetic than before. Whether this is just placebo effect or not i don't know but to be honest i don't really care i feel alot better spiritually and physically and will never go back.

I have heard that a vegan/vegetarian diet tends to improve the brains functions. I have noticed a decline in that area over that last few years and am hoping for a little boost. Overall though I feel great.

hellguy wrote:I have heard that a vegan/vegetarian diet tends to improve the brains functions. I have noticed a decline in that area over that last few years and am hoping for a little boost. Overall though I feel great.

One more question; about going vegan.

Did you vegans here jump to vegan or was it a progressive thing? Why?

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For brain function, take a DHA/EPA supplement (or, at least one that's DHA from algae). Vegans don't really get much DHA, if any, in their diet due to not eating fish (who get their DHA from the algae they eat), and unless you eat a ton of sea vegetables, supplementation is recommended. You CAN get a tiny bit from things like flax seed, but apparently the conversion rate to DHA sucks, so a supplement can do a lot more good than hoping that you're getting enough from the few sources that have anything to offer.

For me, I was vegetarian for a year, then went vegan, as with many it was a challenge to get rid of the cheese and dairy at first, but was easy once I went without for a bit. Of course, 11 years ago there were far fewer good-tasting options out there, so now it's a snap compared to back then as far as finding more alternatives to the things most people miss when going vegan!

"A 'hardgainer' is merely someone who hasn't bothered to try enough different training methods to learn what is actually right for their own damned body." - anonymous

hellguy wrote:I have heard that a vegan/vegetarian diet tends to improve the brains functions. I have noticed a decline in that area over that last few years and am hoping for a little boost. Overall though I feel great.

One more question; about going vegan.

Did you vegans here jump to vegan or was it a progressive thing? Why?

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Way back when when I was going vegan i spent a year transitioning and learning. I feel thats the best way to approach and avoid the rubberband effect.

Energy, calm, better focus, better recovery. Those are the reasons why I stayed vegan after trying it for a month. I feel cleaner too. I didn't get sick as a meat eater though so that part is hard to gauge. I've been trying to think of a side effect that I don't like but I can't think of one. Vive Vegan!

Going vegan from vegetarian was a natural transition and didn't involve much drama. Going 95% raw vegan, however, was frickin' amazing. My appetite went way down while my energy level went through the roof. I was also weirdly happy all the time, as if I was high or on some happy drug or something. My joints loosened (didn't realize they were swollen with fluids) and I was able to bump up my weights right away. My recovery time from any form of exercise or stress was cut down by 50% or more. The downside, if you can call it that, is that I can't get away with occasional visits to the Dark Side anymore with junk food, coffee, or alcohol. My system is so "pure," if you will, that I'm super sensitive now. The most I can indulge is two fingers of coffee, a cup of beer, or a bite of chocolate. I guess I'm a cheap date!

Baby Hercules wrote:Going vegan from vegetarian was a natural transition and didn't involve much drama. Going 95% raw vegan, however, was frickin' amazing. My appetite went way down while my energy level went through the roof. I was also weirdly happy all the time, as if I was high or on some happy drug or something. My joints loosened (didn't realize they were swollen with fluids) and I was able to bump up my weights right away. My recovery time from any form of exercise or stress was cut down by 50% or more. The downside, if you can call it that, is that I can't get away with occasional visits to the Dark Side anymore with junk food, coffee, or alcohol. My system is so "pure," if you will, that I'm super sensitive now. The most I can indulge is two fingers of coffee, a cup of beer, or a bite of chocolate. I guess I'm a cheap date! Baby Herc

I've been thinking about doing this for a few months now. How did you pull it off and what were some of the ups and downs?